Read Online Murder Grins and Bears It by Deb Baker - Free Book Online Page B

bushes. The killer didn’t even see him.
Probably walked up and saw Little Donny’s rifle leaning against a
tree and used it. The bang woke up Little Donny, he panicked, then
ran off. He’s good and lost by now, but we’ll find him.”
    I was feeling better. Kitty’s theory made
sense. It would be like Little Donny to run away and get lost.
After all, he’s a city boy and they can’t tell directions.
    “ Why didn’t he run right to
Blaze? I asked.
    “ Because he’s
lost.”
    “ What about Billy?” Cora
Mae put in her two cents. “Who would have shot him full of
arrows?”
    That made no sense to me either. We both
looked at Kitty like she had all the answers.
    “ I don’t know,” Kitty said.
“But we’ll find out.” She grinned, her teeth gleaming. Kitty’s
teeth are the whitest in the county.
    That reminded me.
    I dug the red tooth from my pocket and laid
it on the table. “I found this in the brush at Carl’s bait
pile.”
    Kitty picked the tooth up, studying it.
“What is it?”
    “ An Indian arrowhead?” Cora
Mae guessed.
    “ Looks like a tooth to me.”
Kitty handed it to Cora Mae. “But why’s it red?”
    “ Berry stains,” Cora Mae
said, indifferently. “Bears eat berries, don’t they?” She handed
the tooth back to me. “No big deal.”
    “ You eat berries, too,” I
said. “Are your teeth red? And what is a bear tooth doing in the
brush? A bear will generally keep his teeth in his mouth from what
I hear.”
    “ Don’t lose it. We’ll put
on our thinking caps and come up with something,” Cora Mae
said.
    “ Oh. I have a surprise for
you.” Kitty rubbed her hands together with glee. Her arm blubber
bounced. “I’ve got us a meeting at the morgue in Escanaba
tomorrow.”
    “ With the coroner who
worked on Robert Hendricks?” I squealed.
    “ Well not exactly the
coroner, but someone who can get us in.”
    “ How’d you do that?” Cora
Mae asked.
    “ I keep trying to tell you.
I have men chasing me around all the time. I met him at a social a
while back.”
    I looked at Kitty’s enormous body and
pin-curled hair, which she rarely combed out, and I wanted to hug
her to death.
    My main goal was to get Little Donny back in
one healthy piece, but discovering the killer might lead the way to
Little Donny. We had to cover all angles and chase every clue.

    ****

    Blaze pulled into Kitty’s yard behind my
truck, blocking my plans for a hasty escape. Big Donny sat next to
him.
    “ How’s Heather?” I asked
Big Donny when he jumped down.
    “ The doctor prescribed a
sedative for her. She’s resting. We’ve been looking all over for
you.”
    I couldn’t help noticing Blaze was circling
my truck like a turkey vulture homing in on fresh meat. His face
was tomato-red. That’s what happens when he gets worked up, which
is just about always.
    “ How did you manage to find
this piece of junk?” he roared, referring to his old sheriff truck
- the one I now legally owned.
    “ I bought it at the auction
in Escanaba and fixed it up a bit. Looks pretty good, doesn’t
it?”
    He read my company name on the side of the
truck out loud and shook his head. “The last time I checked, you
didn’t even have a driver’s license. If you’re driving illegally,
I’m confiscating your vehicle.”
    “ I’m legal,” I
lied.
    “ I’m checking right now.”
Blaze ran back to his truck, yanked the door open, and reached for
the radio.
    “ Blaze,” Big Donny called.
“We have more important things to do right now. Tell
her.”
    “ Tell me what?” I asked,
searching their faces. Big Donny looked like he’d swallowed rat
poison, his face pasty white like dough, the lines of his mouth
twitching.
    “ Is it about Little Donny?
Have you found him?”
    “ Warrant’s been issued for
Little Donny’s arrest,” he said grimly.
    We gasped. Cora Mae’s was the loudest. Kitty
flung her Amazon arms into the air and howled like a gust of
forty-mile-an-hour wind.
    “ WHAT?” I shouted